Panel OKs Filner’s port policy revamp

Council committee backs green initiatives, new protocol for selecting commissioners

At the urging of Mayor Bob Filner, city leaders took the first step Wednesday toward overhauling their future dream for San Diego’s port and how the city selects its representatives on the seven-member Port Commission.

A City Council committee unanimously approved a revamping of the city’s port policy that largely reflects the vision Filner laid out during last year’s mayoral campaign. The changes included an emphasis on green and blue technology sectors — which Filner has dubbed the “aqua economy” — expanding international trade, creating high-paying jobs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adding bike lanes on port lands.

Council members, however, couldn’t agree on specifics for a new appointment process, which leaves a contentious issue unresolved.

The hearing follows Filner’s successful veto last month of the council’s two port appointees. He said the city should develop a vision and policy direction for appointees to follow and change the appointment process to ensure commissioners can be held accountable by city leaders.

“When the port and the city and the county and the other cities agree to a common vision, then there has to be accountability from our appointees for implementing that vision,” Filner said Wednesday. “This is not just lone rangers on a board. ... They have responsibilities to their city and can report back in a far more accountable and regular fashion.”

To address the role of port commissioners, the council committee approved three major changes:

• Potential commissioners would be required to have “several years of professional experience” in one or more of the following fields: environmental stewardship, technology, tourism, manufacturing, shipping, the law, real estate or planning. No such background requirement currently exists.

• Commissioners would be required to present an annual work plan to the City Council at the beginning of each year.

• Commissioners also must give periodic updates to a council committee and the Mayor’s Office on port happenings.

All of the proposed changes by the council’s rules committee — David Alvarez, Sherri Lightner and Mark Kersey — must be approved by the full council before going into effect. Other committee members, Marti Emerald and Kevin Faulconer, were absent.

The hubbub over port appointees began in January after the council chose Democratic attorney Rafael Castellanos and Republican businessman Marshall Merrifield as port representatives. The selections were a bipartisan compromise between Council President Todd Gloria, a Democrat, and four Republican council members because of the current 4-4 split on the panel.

Filner and other Democrats preferred waiting until the District 4 council seat is filled after a March 26 special election, when it is all but certain that Democrats will have a council majority. That would allow them to make the decision without compromising with Republicans.

The mayor’s veto of the port appointees means two of the city’s three port slots will remain vacant for the time being.